Germany

Germany is a major industrialized country in the middle of Europe. The official name is "Bundesrepublik Deutschland" (Federal Republic of Germany).

Background: As Western Europe's richest and most populous nation, Germany remains a key member of the continent's economic, political, and defense organizations. European power struggles immersed the country in two devastating World Wars in the first half of the 20th century and left the country occupied by the victorious Allied powers of the US, UK, France, and the Soviet Union in 1945. With the advent of the Cold War, two German states were formed in 1949: the western Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) and the eastern German Democratic Republic (GDR). The democratic FRG embedded itself in key Western economic and security organizations, the EC and NATO, while the communist GDR was on the front line of the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact. The decline of the USSR and the end of the Cold War allowed for German unification in 1990. Since then Germany has expended considerable funds to bring eastern productivity and wages up to western standards. In January 1999, Germany and 10 other EU countries formed a common European currency, the euro.

Germany measures about 800 km (about 500 mi) from north to south; the country extends about 600 km (about 400 mi) from west to east and has is with a total area of 356 970 km² the fourth largest country in Europe. G. is an union of 16 federal states ("Bundesländer"), from north to south: Schleswig Holstein, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Niedersachsen, Hamburg, Bremen, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Hessen, Sachsen-Anhalt, Brandenburg, Berlin, Thuringen, Sachsen, Rheinland Pfalz, Saarland, Baden-Würtemberg, Bayern.

It's adjacent in the north to the North Sea, Denmark, Baltic Sea, in the east to Poland, the Czech Republic, in the south to Switzerland and Austria and in the West to the Netherlands, France, Luxembourg and Belgium.

There were about 82 million residents at the end of 1999, including 7.3 million foreigners.

Germany takes part in the NATO, the European Union and the EuroCurrency.

Geography

People

History

Political Structure

Economy

Communications

Transportation

Military

BTW: It's not true that all Germans like "Sauerkraut and Eisbein", and not many people there are wearing short leather trousers even not in BavariA. The Bavarian Capital is Munich (German München) which is famous of its big beer festival, the "Oktoberfest."